In modern surgery, one or more surgical sub-procedures are performed with powered surgical handpieces. A handpiece may include a motor that drives a cutting accessory such as a drill bit, saw blade or a bur. Alternatively, the handpiece may be an electrocautery device, or a tissue ablation tool that removes and/or shapes the tissue with RF energy, ultrasonic energy or light energy. The electrical energy used to actuate these handpieces often comes from a control console to which the handpiece is connected.
During the performance of many surgical procedures, it is often desirable to apply an irrigation fluid to the site at which the procedure is being performed. This fluid clears away debris that form during the procedure. Depending on the procedure and the preference of the surgeon, irrigation occurs simultaneously with the actuation of the tool performing the procedure and/or sequentially with the actuation of the handpiece. Often the irrigation fluid is introduced to the surgical site by an irrigation line that is temporarily or permanently attached to the handpiece. The distal end of this irrigation line is directed to the location to which the distal end of the handpiece, or any accessory attached to the handpiece, is applied to the patient in order to perform the desired surgical procedure. One assembly for removably attaching the distal end section of an irrigation line to a handpiece is disclosed in the Applicant's Assignee's U.S. Pat. No. 6,017,354, INTEGRATED SYSTEM FOR POWERED SURGICAL TOOLS, issued Jan. 25, 2000 the contents of which is explicitly incorporated herein by reference.
Irrigation fluid is supplied to the irrigation line through a pump. One popular form of pump used to supply this fluid is a peristaltic pump. Generally, a peristaltic pump includes a tube into which irrigating fluid is gravity flowed. An arcuate section of the tube rests against a concave surface. A set of rollers attached to a rotor press the tube against the curved surface. The action of the rollers pushing against the tube forces the fluid in the tube downstream so it is discharged at the surgical site. Often the tube is at least partially contained in a cassette. A portion of the tube extends outside of the cassette. The wall of the cassette adjacent where the tube is exposed forms the surface against which the tube bears. Each time a new surgical procedure is performed a tube set, consisting of the tube and cassette, is mounted to the pump. This provides efficient means for quickly mounting new, sterile, tubes to the pump. The Applicant's Assignee's U.S. Pat. No. 6,007,556, SURGICAL IRRIGATION PUMP AND TOOL SYSTEM, issued Dec. 28, 1999, and explicitly incorporated herein by reference, discloses one such pump assembly.
There has been increase in the number of surgical handpieces that are available to surgeons. For example, specialized powered handpieces are available to perform surgical procedures on the spine, other handpieces are available to perform sinus surgery while some are designed specifically for orthopedic repair or joint replacement procedures. Similarly, different tube sets are now available for use with the same basic pump consoles. For instance, tube sets primarily designed to provide large volumes of fluid are available for use to perform surgical procedures on large joints. Other tube sets are designed for use in small joint surgery. These tube sets are designed to provide irrigation fluid in smaller volumes than those designed for use during large joint procedures.
The availability of these different surgical tools and pump tube sets can potentially lead to confusion during a surgical procedure. For example, for any number of reasons, a large joint tube set may be attached to a pump when the pump is set for use in a procedure in which large amounts of irrigating fluid are neither required nor desirable. Similarly, a small joint tube set may be attached to a pump when the procedure to be performed is one in which most likely it is desirable to provide large volumes of irrigation fluid at relatively high flow rates. Taking the time to double check to ensure that the proper tube set is attached to a pump and/or having to quickly change the tube set if the oversight is not discovered, can increase the time it takes to perform a surgical procedure. This runs contrary to one of the goals of modern surgery which is to perform the surgical procedure as quickly as possible.
The Applicant's Assignee's U.S. Pat. No. 5,810,770, FLUID MANAGEMENT PUMP SYSTEM FOR SURGICAL PROCEDURES, issued Sep. 22, 1998, discloses a pump assembly wherein a tube set cassette is provided with a ROM. The ROM contains basic data identifying the type of tube set. Even providing this type of data cannot guarantee that the proper type of tube set will be installed in a pump for a given surgical procedure.
Still another problem with currently available pumps concerns their priming. Specifically, when a tube set is initially attached to a pump, irrigation fluid often does not flow through the tube set. If the pump is not primed, when the pump is initially actuated, there is a delay until the fluid is forced through the tube set and discharged. Presently, the only means by which this delay can be eliminated is to prime the pump by having operating room personnel turn the pump on for a short period of time to bring the fluid head close to the discharge outlet. Requiring surgical personnel to perform this task takes time and, in some situations, may take more time then simply waiting for the fluid to be discharged from an unprimed tube set. Moreover, it may be difficult for surgical personnel to accurately prime the tube set by turning the pump on and off. If the pump is turned on for too short a time, the tube set may be insufficiently primed. Alternatively, if the pump is turned on for too long a time period, irrigation fluid may be discharged from tube set. This discharge just needlessly adds to the presence of undesirable liquid-state waste material in the operating room.